Publications by authors named "Zvi S"

Evidence from recent years highlighted the importance of the Mediterranean diet for brain health. We investigated the association between adherence to Mediterranean diet and change in cognitive functions two decades later in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Participants were men with a history of CVD, who previously participated in the Bezafibrate Infarction Prevention (BIP) trial between 1990 and 1997, had a food diary record, and underwent cognitive evaluations 14.

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The amazing phycobilisome.

Biochim Biophys Acta Bioenerg

April 2020

Cyanobacteria and red-algae share a common light-harvesting complex which is different than all other complexes that serve as photosynthetic antennas - the Phycobilisome (PBS). The PBS is found attached to the stromal side of thylakoid membranes, filling up most of the gap between individual thylakoids. The PBS self assembles from similar homologous protein units that are soluble and contain conserved cysteine residues that covalently bind the light absorbing chromophores, linear tetra-pyrroles.

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In this study, we use ultrafast time-resolved absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies to examine A. marina phycobilisomes isolated from cells grown under light of different intensities and spectral regimes. Investigations were performed at room temperature and at 77 K.

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Introduction: Life expectancy of less than 1 year is usually a contraindication for implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implantation. The aim was to identify patients at risk of death during the first year after implantation.

Methods And Results: Data were derived from a prospective Israeli ICD Registry.

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The major light harvesting antenna in all cyanobacterial species is the phycobilisome (PBS). The smallest PBS identified to date is that of Acaryochloris marina (A. marina), composed of a single four-hexamer rod.

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In studies of behavioral reconsolidation interference, reactivation of a consolidated memory using some form of reminder is followed by the presentation of new information that can cause interference with that memory. Under these conditions, the interference not only impairs retrieval by indirect processes such as cue interference, but supposedly disrupts the original memory trace directly. Almost all studies of behavioral reconsolidation interference in episodic memory in humans have employed between-subjects paradigms, and deduced reminder effects from intrusion errors.

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Light absorption is the initial step in the photosynthetic process. In all species, most of the light is absorbed by dedicated pigment-protein complexes called light harvesting complexes or antenna complexes. In the case of cyanobacteria and red-algae, photosynthetic organisms found in a wide variety of ecological niches, the major antenna is called the Phycobilisome (PBS).

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Background: Renal dysfunction is associated with increased mortality in heart failure (HF) patients. However, there are limited data regarding clinical and arrhythmic outcomes associated with implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy in this population.

Methods: We evaluated outcomes associated with the severity of renal dysfunction with or without dialysis among 2,289 patients who were enrolled and prospectively followed up in the Israeli ICD Registry.

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We investigated the involvement of the posterior parietal cortex in episodic memory in a lesion-effects study of cued recall following pair-associate learning. Groups of patients who had experienced first-incident stroke, generally in middle cerebral artery territory, and exhibited damage that included lateral posterior parietal regions, were tested within an early post-stroke time window. In three experiments, patients and matched healthy comparison groups executed repeated study and cued recall test blocks of pairs of words (Experiment 1), pairs of object pictures (Experiment 2), or pairs of object pictures and environmental sounds (Experiment 3).

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Background: Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) reduce mortality in patients with heart failure (HF) and left ventricular dysfunction. However, their efficacy in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is controversial.

Objective: We examined the association between renal dysfunction and clinical outcomes in patients undergoing ICD and CRT defibrillator (CRTD) implantation.

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Although memory of episodic associations is generally considered to be recollective in nature, it has been suggested that when stimuli are experienced as a unit, familiarity-related processes might contribute to their subsequent associative recognition. Furthermore, intradomain associations are believed to be unitized more readily than interdomain associations. To assess these claims, we tested associative recognition following two types of pair associate learning.

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Background: Defibrillation threshold (DFT) testing during placement of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) has been considered mandatory. Accumulating data suggest a more limited role for DFT.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the outcome of ICD recipients who underwent DFT testing compared with those who did not.

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Background: Detection of disease-causing mutations using Deep Sequencing technologies possesses great challenges. In particular, organizing the great amount of sequences generated so that mutations, which might possibly be biologically relevant, are easily identified is a difficult task. Yet, for this assignment only limited automatic accessible tools exist.

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We describe a new procedure using event-related brain potentials to investigate parafoveal word processing during sentence reading. Sentences were presented word by word at fixation, flanked 2° bilaterally by letter strings. Flanker strings were pseudowords, except for the third word in each sentence, which was flanked by either two pseudowords or a pseudoword and a word, one on each side.

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The High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment has observed the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin suppression (called the GZK cutoff) with a statistical significance of five standard deviations. HiRes' measurement of the flux of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays shows a sharp suppression at an energy of 6 x 10(19) eV, consistent with the expected cutoff energy. We observe the ankle of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum as well, at an energy of 4 x 10(18) eV.

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A customized instrumentation stand is described for use during transport of cardiothoracic or major surgery patients between the OR and a critical care area. The stand attaches to a patient bed and is equipped with a pulse oximeter, ECG/BP monitor, defibrillator/monitor and support module, oxygen tank, supplies, and medications. The design allows maximum visibility and accessibility, easy movement, and quick attachment to and disconnection from a bed.

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The problems in hospitals which led to the development of the clinical engineering profession are described along with recent changes in the hospital environment. The authors discuss how the profession is adapting to these changes. Also discussed is the tendency for BMETs to move into clinical engineering roles.

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The Scientific and Medical Instrumentation Center (SMIC) is the clinical engineering program serving the State University of New York's Health Science Center at Brooklyn. SMIC is a separate department within the center's 354-bed University Hospital, and provides many instrumentation support services for the hospital and the center's Basic Sciences Division. Now in its 24th year, SMIC developed the nation's first mandatory initial checkout program for patient care equipment, and in 1973 published the results of a funded pilot preventive maintenance program; this served as a model for the start-up of other PM programs in hospitals across the country and overseas.

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Adenylate cyclase in homogenates of Drosophila melanogaster is heterogeneous with respect to its affinity toward MgATP and its subcellular distribution. Km values for MgATP range, under similar assay conditions, from approximately 10(-5) M to approximately 10(-3) M, depending on the body region and on the subcellular localization of the enzyme. The majority of the enzyme in whole-body preparations is particulate, but various body regions differ in the relative proportion of the soluble enzyme.

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Servicing of microprocessor-based and digital patient care instrumentation presents a special challenge to the in-house clinical engineering program. The complexity of this instrumentation, the cost of test equipment and support materials, and continuing education needs are pressing concerns. Servicing methods available to clinical engineering include the use of manufacturer diagnostics and board or subassembly swapping.

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Adenylate cyclase in washed, crude membrane fractions prepared from the Drosophila conditioning mutant, rutabaga, displays an altered responsiveness to Ca2+. The results are of interest since the modulation of adenylate cyclase activity by Ca2+ has recently been suggested to play a role in molecular events that underlie memory formation.

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A large number of in-house preventive maintenance (PM) programs, which call for varying degrees of thoroughness in the checkout of patient care instrumentation, are currently in existence throughout the country. This paper discusses the types of preventive maintenance, or PM procedures, which can be used by a clinical engineering department; the rationale for drafting different types of PM procedures in-house; and some long-term considerations affecting hospital-based inspection programs. Three types of PM procedures are described and compared: general checks; generic procedures; and, specific procedures.

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